Table Rock Middle School

Opportunities in Burke County

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Martha's Park in Morganton
Burke County is home to many recreational facilities, community centers, and parks.  Two state parks, Lake James State Park and South Mountains State Park, are located within the county.  The City of Morganton maintains twelve public parks.  To view a listing of these parks, please visit the City of Morganton's webpage here

Below is a map of parks, recreational areas, ball fields, and community centers in relation to Table Rock Middle School (denoted as the yellow tack). 

As you can see, there are no recreational centers or parks within Table Rock's district except facilites located at the middle schools and elementary schools. 




Due to the recent rise in unemployment, many students' families may be unable to pay the fees and/or travel expenses for their children to join county-sponsored sports leagues and youth activities.  Because Table Rock has no free recreational facilities nearby, the social crux of many students' social lives may depend on church and/or youth group activities as indicated by our survey.      

Table Rock offers a wide variety of school-sponsored sports programs, most of which are no-cut (as we have learned is the most developmentally responsive way to have sports try-outs at the middle level).  Although "sports" was listed as the 2nd most popular activity that students enjoyed in our survey, it is sometimes difficult to spark student interest in school-sponsored activities.  In fact, 52% of survey respondents said they spent 0 hours in an after-school sponsored activity.  Despite this, several teachers have tried to recruit players for various sports, but the students refused without citing reasons.   Students need active and social outlets to form friendships with and gain exposure to others who are different than themselves, as well as finding other young adolescents who share common interests.  Teachers and administrators may want to work together to come up with creative ways to get students involved in school-sponsored activities, since for some this may be the only option for extra-curricular social activity they may have.